Experimental Fate  Vandread
by the-taken
Summary: In an alternate universe, Hibiki is a mad scientist.


This is a project I started to both vent some creativity, and get into a regular writing habit. I have many ideas running through my head when I read or watch a story, and often times have trouble sorting them out. I figured out that the best way to sort this combination of troubles was to pick a story I could watch constantly and change the main character around, and having a forum vote on which plausible actions the MC could plausibly decide to take next as what direction the story would go in. I chose the anime version of Vandread because it is a plot driven story, and I like the possible situations that can arise from a man a ship full of women.

This is a piece of derivative fan fiction. At no point have I owned any of anything, though I will buy the franchise when I get enough money in my next lifetime.

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**~- Chapter 1 -~**

It was a glorious day for Tarak. The industry had finally completed construction, armament, and staffing of the newest and most powerful battle ship ever created. The Ikazuchi. It was a day to celebrate both the toil and labor put into the warship, and the manly glory that it would bring in defending the holy planet of Tarak from those vile monsters, the space pirate race of Women!

In cities all over the planet Tarak, men gathered to celebrate the launch. Women were vile creatures that had once enslaved men to a life of horrible nearly pointless labor (worse than anything the men had themselves do), and had them slaughtered for their innards as a staple commodity. And despite having run away to another planet, women still harassed men from their homeworld, Majere. They had to be stopped, and thus the construction of the new battle ship Ikazuchi.

However, third class citizen Hibiki wasn't in a festive mood. Instead of being out on the streets celebrating, he was in his tiny apartment. He had a very important job to do, he was busy filling a backpack with the tools he needed to infiltrate the Ikazuchi and steal a Vanguard!

_I really should have paid more attention... _thought Hibiki to himself. He was reminiscing about what happened a few days ago. He had an epiphany, brought on by frustration at never seeing the fighting machines that he was helping build. So he decided to build one of his own, scrapping together spare parts and various bits of discarded junk pieces. He calculated it would take him a year to put his own Vanguard together, but he could do it. And why not make it better then the standard? Unfortunately, the crotch component he had swiped and modified was mistaken for a standard piece and sent down the assembly line and built into one of the Vanguards for the Ikazuchi. Now he had a proper crotch component, and his custom piece was going to be launched into space. He needed to get onto the Ikazuchi and get it back! Of course, that meant taking the whole Vanguard, but that would speed up his project's time frame quite a bit.

"How dumb can I be?" he mumbled to himself. "How could I have been so careless?" He sighed, before growling and summoning his resolve. "Damn it all. No matter how many times I screw up, I'm still a guy. And Hibiki the Man never gives up." Then he gathered his gear and began his mission.

Almost an hour later, Hibiki was running along the catwalks just outside the Ikazuchi, ignoring the General's public adress that had been going on ever since he had left in favour of his own inner thoughts.

_"Come on. You know we're only third class citizens,"_ said one memory of a coworker. _"All we have to do is keep quiet and make parts like these and we'll always have food in our bellies,"_ said another. _"Don't be so hot headed. You can never change who you are no matter how hard you try." "Forget about it. You gotta know where you stand." "Only dimwits that let their emotion run away have asinine dreams like that."_

He found a ladder going up to a hatch in the spaceship's hull. _Maybe I can't change who I am, _countered Hibiki, blocking the negative thoughts. _But living in the shadows, quietly sitting by isn't who I am. I want more._

Finally onto the ship, Hibiki double checked his mental map. He was in the barracks, empty since everyone was busy either being part of the ceremony, or observing it. He knew he was still a long way from the Vanguards, and there were a number of obstacles to contend with. But as he ran through the metal hallways, the General's epic speech occasionally disappeared into the background. It was a well written speech, it was just incredibly long.

Then he came upon his first obstacle. A security door, requiring an electrical key to open. _I have just the thing. _Hibiki knew he could by pass the door manually. He had the tools and the knowledge. Unfortunately, it would take time to do it; someone could see him hacking the door and then it'd be all over.

_All right! Open sesame! _Hibiki pulled his tools out of his back pack; a slot screw driver, some spare wires, electrical pliers, a wire crimp, and seven wads of clays. With little effort, he was able bypass the outer security features on the lock. With access to the internal components, Hibiki spent nearly six minutes rewiring the lock to work in reverse. It would open if the switch was toggled without a key, but if a key was inserted then the door wouldn't open. He carefully replaced the lock's cover and reactivated the outer security feature, leaving no obvious evidence of his tampering.

He knew what he did would be discovered, since someone would try to use the key, then find the door remained closed. Then a maintenance worker would come and fix the door and find out what he had done. But he'd be long gone by then.

He grinned in satisfaction as he toggled the switch, opening the door, before toggling it back and slipping though while the door closed. He got through without being discovered.

Broadcast from every terminal and speaker, the General's booming voice echoed through the ship, "We all feel in our hearts new breath coming from the Ikazuchi. Look upon it. Praise it. This is the flag ship. Of the Tarak Imperial Army!" The roar from the crowds could be heard from inside the Ikazuchi.

Hibiki made his way to a cargo hold, finding some men still unloading supplies into the Ikazuchi. He was easily able to sneak past them and deeper into the ship. Similar situations arose as he went past security station and break rooms, where the crew of the warship were enthralled by the monumental speech the general was delivering.

"As most of you already know, the main objective of our missions is to end the piracy that plaguing our borders by the women circling our realm recently. But do not forget that you are on a battle field. Work diligently and don't let yourselves be caught off guard."

Finally, he came to the last door between him and the Vanguard he came for. "Oh man," gasped Hibiki, breathing heavily from all the jogging. "This ship is a lot bigger than the map makes it out to be." He pulled out a rubber glove, designed to emulate the palm print of a random soldier in order to fool the sensor. "It's a really good thing I haven't left anything to chance. I'd be in trouble if I hadn't done my homework." He sprayed the glove to remove the skin oil he got on it while putting it on, then pressed the glove to the scanner.

The scanner promptly replied, "PALM PRINT DOES NOT MATCH. REENTER WITHIN 30 SECONDS."

Hinbiki gasped. He was certain he had the right palm print on the glove. He had to do something fast, or the door would lock permanently and the security alarms would go off!

"Oh, crap!" Hibiki nearly yelled. The glove was defective, so he had to act fast. He got his tools out of his backpack and began working on the door lock.

At the security room around the corner, the three relaxing guards were interrupted from their observation of a historic speech. Suddenly, the flashing red light, the silent alarm for the Vanguard Hanger nearby went off. "Unauthorized access? No way!" exclaimed one guard, standing up from his chair. "Now, of all times? The speech is really getting good," said another.

Then the senior of the three spoke, "It's probably nothing. Let's check it out as fast as possible." He turned to the monitor displaying the broadcast and switched back the security cameras.

"See, nothing there. The door probably shorted." "Yeah, lets just put a notice in for someone to fix it and be done with it."

"Nope, look here," said the senior guard, pointing at a the bottom left of the screen. "There's something on that tile. We're going over there." He turned the screen back to the broadcast before heading off to the locked down door at a jog, his two associates keeping pace.

In the temporary banquet hall, the General was coming to the conclusion to his speech. He had a nice surprise in store for everyone. "Enough time wasted! Why wait for the designated our to arrive? Wouldn't you agree with me men?" A resonate cheer from the crowd of cadet graduates responded.

Throughout the shipyard, technicians and engineers were panicking. "What's that? He's starting it two hours earlier!" "Get to your stations men!"

The guards reached the security door, finding it displaying the words LOCKDOWN IN EFFECT.

"Just as I suspected," said the senior guard, holding up a rubber glove, "someone tried to fool the scanner with a fake palm print." His two companions made downcast looks, while he brought his communicator to his mouth. "Security HQ. This is old section hanger security. We have an intruder. He just tried to get into the Vanguard hanger, but the door locked him out."

"Roger that," replied a voice on the other side. "Begin sweeping in pattern Theta. We're dispatching another team to assist."

On the other side of the door, a slightly wicked grin crossed Hibiki's face as he listened to the guards run off to find him. He knew he wouldn't have time to get past the security elements of the door, but he was able to open it and hide evidence of his tampering before getting through and letting the door lock down. He discarded his glove to make it look like he gave up and ran off, sending the guards on a ghost hunt. He only hoped they didn't bother to double check the hanger itself, though the fact that the door was locked down would buy him time if they did.

"Not bad, eh?" he said to himself. "That was a piece of cake." He had no idea what a piece a cake was, but the saying was catchy. He was in a large long room with dozens of alcoves, each housing a Vanguard. He walked down the hanger, looking at each of the crotch plates of the fighting machines to find the one he modified; the plating had some distinctive markings, and it was a wonder it was put in with the regular parts. "Come on. Where are you?" he mumbled, as if addressing the Van-type would make it more apparent.

Out in the streets of the city, the crowd was chanting in response to the general's speech's surprise ending, and he responded in kind, "You voices have been heard. Allow me to answer your demand with this!" And then he raised his arms as a full company of trumpets the fanfare. All over, fueling pipes popped off, magnetizing braces retracting into the shipyard, steam gushed out of engine exhaust ports, the array of temporary rockets burst to life, and power lines heated up with their current. The behemoth structure, the Spaceship Ikazuchi began to launch.

Back in the hanger, Hibiki was had just found the Vanguard with his custom part. "So," Hibiki said to the Vanguard. "That's where it they put you, partner." He wiped the sweat from his brow. "Man, I'm so glad I found you. Now to get out of here."

Before him was the Vanguard. It was like every other Vanguard, but this one was now his. Like the others, before hit stood a thirty-something foot humanoid shaped robot; heavily armored, bulky, boxy limbs that could house various hidden weapon configurations and other combat devices; the chest housed the cockpit, as well as several important components; while the head contains several scanning and communication features and an optic lens. It was designed to be as close to mankind's body is function and ability that soldiers could be trained as infantry and then make the shift to war machine piloting with little difficulty.

Yet, just as Hibiki took a step forward to begin climbing to the Vanguard's cockpit, the floor shifted beneath him. In a moment, he found himself gaining distance from his Vanguard. He crashed into wall, and some loose cleaning supplies crashed into to him, stunning him for a moment.

"Ow. What's happened?" Hibiki groaned, retrieving himself from the junk. He stood up on the shaking floor, then glanced out nearby window. A horror struck expression took form as he saw the complete lack of the Shipyard, and the vast expanse of Tarak's desert surface. "We're going up? Already!" He shook off his disbelief, turned back to his Vanguard, then charged. "I have to get out of here."

In the Banquet hall next door, the General was readying his next segment of the ceremony, the shaking of his rising Ikazuchi having subsided enough. The chatting of cadets and soldier in the large room died down with the dimming lights and the announcer's direction to look at the large screen that had dropped from the ceiling. The General watched the screen from the podium beneath with awe, despite having personally vetoed all the editing on it. It was short demonstration clip catered to show of the manly power of the new Van-type fighters, of which the R&D company that developed it dubbed it the Vanguard. He personally like his choice for the narrator, a rich tenor voice, but his favorite part was the demonstration clip of a Vanguard taking a direct hit from an artillery shell to it's chest, a cut from the demonstration video from the testing grounds. The video ended on a high note, promising Tarak's glory and freedom, and showing off the robust and manly vehicle of war.

The General grinned as the cadets and soldiers cheered (aside from a small few). He turned from the podium, as the screen lifted and the back into the ceiling, and the hanger bay doors opened to reveal the fleet of Tsukumo Version Van-type Fighters, which brought the crowd's cheers even louder... for two seconds. Then everyone noticed an orange shirted boy hanging off the nearest Vanguard. Awkward silence permeated the room for what seemed like an eternity. Then someone shouted out, "Isn't that a third class citizen?"

The General came out of his shock. "What are you doing? Get that boy!" he ordered, annoyed that some punk ruined his ceremony.

_Busted,_ Hibiki thought to himself. Several guards came out of the crowd and from the wings of the room, clubs draw and scowling in his direction.

_Too close to fail now, _Hibiki spurred himself. He pulled himself higher up the Vanguard, reaching for the release lever to open the chest plate and get alow him into the cockpit. He howled to get his adrenalin going, as he his hand found the level and yanked it hard. His heart skipped a beat as the Vanguard's chest plate turned upwards to reveal the cockpit; he had to drop lest he get a face full of metal and end up in the air, but he was quickly able to bring his waist back up enough to grab the one of the braces holding the seat in.

But when he tried to pull himself into Vanguard's cockpit, he found that a tension on his right ankle was holding him back. He turned his to find one of the guard had made it up to him. He grunted with effort as he twisted and flailed his still unrestrained leg about, and grinned as he succeeded in not only knocking his assailant off but knocking him into another guard below, sending them both tumbling at the Vanguard's feet.

No longer held back, Hibiki hurled himself into the cockpit. He barely heard the General barking orders from across the makeshift banquet hall as he twisted in the seat and pulled out the small fire extinguisher from beside it and sprayed the other guard that reared his angry head up to the cockpit. Hibiki pulled the switch to close the cockpit, then pulled lock lever, sealing him in.

The crowd of cadets was in hysterics at the sight of the third class citizen's antics, until they realized that he had succeeded in hijacking a huge battle mech not even twenty feet away. The General was already at a communications console, "Clear the room. Bridge, get tactical to remotely disable that Van-type."

Inside the cockpit, Hibiki was busy working. He knew that once he got this far, someone would notice the Vanguard was activated without authorization, so he came prepared. He pulled out from his back pack a tool kit and a small metal brick with exposed circuitry. He then unscrewed a panel from above his seat, took out another metal brick, and replaced it with his own. He had just replaced the hard drive with one that didn't have any software overrides. He was now in complete control of the Vanguard. He screwed the panel back into place, then threw the activation switched.

He grinned as the display panel in front of him came to life. He waited excitedly as the OS loaded, then went to displaying what was going on around him. He could see that most of the cadets had scrambled out of the room, but one had just run beneath his field of view. He turned and follow the man, then noticed that he was trying to get past him to Vanguard. Hibiki also saw that there were several other cadets trying to climb into Vanguards.

_All right!_ Hibiki gripped the controls and made the motions to walk forward. He had spent several hours reading a stolen copy of the training manual for the Vanguard, so he understood how it worked. Unfortunately he didn't have any experience on exactly what kind of handling this thing had, which is why he caused the mecha to stumble ungracefully out of the hanger and through the now empty banquet hall. He tore down the curtains hiding the hallway to the launching catapults. _If I can just get outside, I'll be home free,_ he reassured himself.

The General had made his way to his command chair, which was on a platform that could change what floor it was on. "Commanding Officer on the Bridge!" announced an officer as his command platform rose.

The General cursed inwardly his control panel came online. "That runt has completely ruined the ceremony. I want him executed the moment he's apprehended."

"Sir! The intruder is taking the stolen fighter through the arming hallway," one of the other men on the bridge replied.

"What?" howled the General. "I ordered you to disable it."

"The Vanguard is not responding to any remote commands, sir. We're not getting any signals from it except for the IFF tag."

Another officer spoke up, "Sir, the escort ship Mabarochi is hailing us with questions concerning the exhibition match."

"The exhibition match has been canceled. Order all ships to move into a into the defensive position around Tarak, except the Mabarochi. Tell them we need a compliment of their fighters outside our hangers in case the intruder escapes the ship. Order the flight deck to seal off the launching catapults. Order the pilots to get into any Vanguards we have ready and take out the stolen one!" The general growled as his commands were relayed. "That third class brat. He won't get away with ruining everything."

Hibiki wasn't doing badly. He had adjusted to the handling of the Vanguard and had just collected a re-entry staff, a Vanguard sized umbrella, for the trip back to the surface. "Nothing to it!" he said, as he had the fighting machine charge down the hallway. He was a few steps away from the launching catapult when he noticed the large security doors slowly closing. "Ha! Those are way too slow," he jeered as he ran through. It would still be while before they closed completely, but at least he was only one long hallway away from getting off the ship. He was next to the launching catapults, a couple of Vanguard sized chairs on magnetic rails designed to get a Vanguards up to speed out of the ship, having better acceleration than a Vanguard's own thrusters could provide. They were controlled by the flight deck, so he couldn't use one.

Hibiki turned back to one of the sliding doors, sending his Vanguard's arm out to grab one of the door's protruding structural angle brackets. With the fighting machine griping the door, he had it pull it to it's closed position faster, then drew the only weapon the Vanguard was equipped with, the sword, and stabbed through ceiling until he saw sparks, then again in the floor. He then repeated his actions again with the second half of security door, which was retracting back into the wall.

Back on the bridge, "He's sabotaged the second door. He's smashing the catapults."

The General was nearing his breaking point. "Where are those fighters?" He shouted. "I want that punk destroyed. Forget about retrieving the Vanguard."

"The pilots are making their way to the armory now, sir," answered one of the bridge officers, "more are in the lockers suiting up."

Suddenly, the Ikazuchi shook from a powerful impact. The whole ship rocked as the artificial gravity lagged. The General recovered from the quake, "I gave the order to stop the exhibition!"

Down on the launching tarmac, Hibiki was trying to keep the Vanguard balanced, despite the fact that the shaking had stopped several seconds ago. "What was that?" He then noticed the blinking red button light below his view screen, a switch on the radio. He pushed it. "Might as well listen in."

"This isn't part of the exhibition. It's the women!" "They're mounting a surprise attack." "Formation has been broken." "Forget the intruder. All ships, guard the Ikazuchi!" "The enemy forces have broken through."

"Women?" Hibiki gasped as he listened to the frantic chatter. Suddenly, the historical footage of the horrible monsters that once plagued man kind flashed before him. The hideous face, the disgusting slimy hide, the sharp claws and teeth that could flay him alive.

"Escort ship Hajiri has been destroyed. The Mabarochi is down too!" "The Ikazuchi's new sections have been breached."

"What deplorable tactics," the General cursed. "They're hiding in the background fire. Send the Vanguards out!"

"But the intruder sealed the door and wrecked the catapults."

"I don't care if they have to blast a whole out the side of the Ikazuchi! Send them out! If we lose this battle because we don't use our latest weapon we'll bring shame to our fore fathers."

Hibiki shut off the radio. He couldn't listen to anymore. It was paralyzing him. "Women," he muttered. He took a moment to shake off his fear. "This is no time to chicken out, whatever a chicken is." He looked down the launching the hallway. He couldn't make out the stars at the other end, by he could occasionally see a flash of light. "Those monsters are right outside the ship, probably blasting anything that moves." He had the Vanguard turn so that he could look at the door. "And I've got a battalion of angry Vanguard pilots right behind that door."

His eyes went wide as one of the door began to slide open. He had to act fast!

Outside the ship, the space pirates' eight fighter crafts were circling the Ikazuchi, using the debris from wreck satellites, asteroids and the destroyed escort ships as cover. Their heist was going off without a hitch. The entire Tarak space fleet was scattered around the whole planet evenly while the target of the week was isolated with only two small cruisers for protection, which they easily overpowered. All they needed now was a way into the enemy flag ship to relieve the crew of it.

"These energy shields are really useful," said Jura in her resonating and melodic voice, "I'm so glad we got them working." She had insisted on a custom design for her ruby red painted fighter craft, having a few extra generators so that she would never had to worry about her beautiful craft getting marred or damaged again.

"Don't get cocky, Jura," replied Meia, their aloof flight leader. "These shields are not impenetrable. Break off if you take a hit. Let them recharge." Her own craft kept the spartan colours of the Majere's military, however she had it retrofitted with slightly larger engines, designed for high speed aerial acrobatics.

"I know, I know. You briefed us for ever on how to use them," Jura retorted. Her flight leader's stoicism was getting on her nerves.

"I'm having trouble finding that last fighter, Meia," came the bright voice of Dita, another pilot. Her retrofitted sapphire craft had a sinister paint job that was at complete odds with her personality and intention.

"Don't worry, I just spotted it." Barnette, the fourth member of the pirate fighter squadrons flying the standard chrome Majere military space fighter. She fired off a barrage of missiles, destroying a small ugly craft that they had been chasing. "That's the last of the escort's fighters. Man these things are shoddy."

"Not quite the last one," Meia corrected, noting a new blip on her radar screen. "I'm detecting another target, slightly smaller than their usual fighter. It just came out of the flag ship. I'm not getting any information on it. It must that new Vanguard fighter that we've been hearing about."

"Just one? That's pretty arrogant, considering the damage we've done without taking any in return," Jura said in a haughty tone, as if taunting the Tarak forces.

"Follow my lead, but don't let your guard down." Meia veered her craft around a piece of debris from a cruiser, exposing her self to the weapon batteries firing from the Ikazuchi, her wing mates right behind her. "The hanger that fighter came out of is out ticket inside."

As Meia sped her ship towards the new battle attendee, her ship's weapon system automatically began locking missile targeting information. She unloaded a battery of super heated particles at the target with the forward mounted canons. She had a small moment of satisfaction when the volley connected with her target, which went away when her sensors didn't indicated any change in the target's velocity or mass. The missile guidance system indicated a successful target lock, and she fired a pair of missiles, which sped off ahead of her ship, straight at the strange fighter.

In his stolen Vanguard, Hibiki was ventilating. He was caught off guard by the sudden attack, not expecting the enemy to be using such agile and fast craft with rapid firing particle weapons. He felt such relief when the attack merely made some soft pinging sounds as it struck his stolen fighting machine. "You're a tough nut to crack aren't you, partner?" he said to the vehicle, not exactly knowing what the term meant. It was catchy, though.

His near calm demeanour was broken when the automated attack detection system detected a pair of target seeking projectiles. His eyes widened in fear, uncertain at what to do. Then at the last second, inspiration hit, and he spun the Vanguard while flailing it's arms out. The missiles flew right past him, and veered into each other as the attempted to correct their course to hit their target.

Elated at his luck and genius, he grinned. These space pirates weren't so tough. He looked at the radar and noted that he had four of their craft heading straight for him. He picked one and decided he would concentrate on attacking that one, while keeping a sharp eye on his radar to avoid any attacks.

Meia nearly growled in frustration. Not only was the tiny fighter incredibly tough, but it was also nimble enough to dodge a pair of missiles, and they were still speeding towards it. "Squad One, concentrate weapons on that fighter," she ordered, "let's see how tough it is." She barely registered the affirmation of Jura, Dita and Barnette as she held down the trigger for the particle cannons.

Four constant volleys of the super heated matter flew towards the Vanguard, as well as a few missiles from Dita that were unfortunately destroyed by the attack they were accompanying. The four large fighter craft and the lone Vanguard continued to speed towards each other, until the blue and red craft veered off to avoid collisions, followed soon after by the chrome ship, leaving Meia's craft heading straight for the Vanguard.

Meia scowled as she approached the Vanguard. The enemy pilot wasn't firing back, simply absorbing every blow while continuing on a direct course for her. Between it's larger mass and the shields, her ship could certainly take the blow but she wouldn't let that happen.

Then the instant were she was in visual range of the fighter came. She could easily make it out between her cannon blasts. To her surprise, it had a humanoid shape, and she suspected it had fully articulate motions as well, since it was brandishing a sword.

She turned her craft an instant too late and heard a loud screeching noise as she flew past the Vanguard. She looked over her should to the wing and noted a huge gash in the armor running along its length. Her collision alarms were going off, but didn't note and damage. The Vanguard's sword luckily didn't hit any system, only managing a superficial hit.

"Regroup behind cover," Meia ordered as she manoeuvred her fighter around and back behind the debris cloud as weapons fire from the enemy flag ship caught up to them. "Keep an eye on that Vanguard."

"Meia, are you all right?" she heard Dita inquire through the coms.

"I've taken minimal damage. My shields held, however that sword went right through it."

"Sword? That thing tried to fight you in melee? In space?" Jura asked in disbelief, before breaking down in laughter.

"Avoid the Vanguard. It has an idiotic design and attack strategy, but can be dangerous if you're not careful. Concentrate on the enemy flag ship. Squadron Two, provide cover during out boarding run." She then noted that several more fighters had poured out of the their target vessel while they regrouped from their attack run. "More Vanguards have been deployed. Squadron 2 will distract them using formation Queen Three."

"Roger," the flight leader for the other half of the fighter crafts replied.

Back in the Vanguard, Hibiki was having trouble. He had successfully damaged the pirate's fighter craft, but didn't cripple it in the least. He had also lost sight of when the weapon's fire from the Ikazuchi suddenly filled his radar, which he was busy dodging. Part of him wanted to scream out, high off his own adrenalin.

The artillery barrage subsided, letting Hibiki catch his breath. He then noticed the slower blips on his radar coming from the Ikazuchi: Other Vanguards!

Hibiki's sense of self preservation was warring with his adrenalin high. He wasn't a soldier, let alone experienced at fighting, and his original goal was just to steel the Vanguard and disappear with it. But the excitement was too much to ignore. He never felt more alive than right at this moment, lost between two warring faction that wanted him dead.

However, he wasn't going to be very effective if he just flailed his warmachine around, attacking anything that moved. He had to use some semblance of intelligence. He flew maneuvered the Vanguard out of the range of the Ikazuchi's artillery, and hid behind a decrepit satellite, then stared at his radar to make sense of the battle.

"Hmm..." he thought aloud, "eight pirate fighter crafts in two groups... against two cruisers and one huge battle ship. What exactly are they after? Besides out innards..." If they wanted men to eat, it would have been easier to sneak down onto the planet and kidnap civilians, and therefore they had to want something the military ship had. "Weapons? Not really. They have better technology, it seems. What are they after?"

He shrugged. "Well, whatever it is. They'll need place nearby to keep it all. I don't think they keep everything in those fighter craft. And it's probably a big ship, cause flying back and forth from Majere in those things probably isn't comfortable."

He grinned. "Maybe they'll surrender if they're mother ships is wrecked. They'll have to, since they won't be able to leave Tarak without it, and they'll be depresses at losing all their loot." He laughed, "And I'll be named a war hero for single handedly defeating the pirate women. They'll forgive my criminal actions and give me funding for my research! They'll give me an army of Vanguards to play with!" He began fiddling with the Vanguard's radar and communication system, searching the area for a larger ship that the wasn't part of Tarak's military, occasionally cackling with glee.

After several minutes of staring at the scanner screen, Hibiki noticed that the Ikazuchi had split into two pieces. It wasn't destroyed, it had simply separated apart. What once was a huge rectangle was now a large boxy cruiser which held the Ikazuchi's bridge and it's two large gun platforms, the new section, moving away from the other half; and the large sleek and curved section with a protruding spherical structure that was the cargo hold, Vanguard hanger and power plant for the weapon platforms, the old section. "What is going on over there?" The old section was launching dozen of small craft from the around it; the escape pods.

It was then that Hibiki noticed an odd asteroid moving towards the old section. When he looked at it on his video screen, he saw a completely different shape than what was on the Radar. He saw was looked like a red oval with large egg like section at the back, and several lights.

"There it is," Hibiki exclaimed, having found the pirates' command ship. Of course, it was easy since they revealed themselves en route to the old section of the Ikazuchi, but Hibiki congratulated himself none the less.

He came out of his hiding space and sped towards the pirate command ship as it connected with the Ikazuchi's old section. After a few moments, his radar system picked up a couple of huge missiles coming from the new section of the Ikazuchi. Soon afterwards, the pirate command ship disconnected from the abandoned section of the Tarak's was ship, and Hibiki then realized that both torpedoes were headed for the old section of the Ikazuchi.

Then inspiration hit him. The pirates had taken what they wanted and kicked the men out of the ship they had boarded. Then brought their mother ship out of hiding to move all the loot they got and recollect their boarding party. On the other hand, the Tarak military was pissed off at losing their new ship, and decided to blow it up while the women were looting it, and they were now scrambling away. The ship was now empty, but the torpedoes would destroy it. But where were the pirates' fighters?

Hibiki though about his options. He considered just leaving or continuing to fight, however, the pirates had just ditched the Ikazuchi's old section and were making an escape, while the Tarak military decided it was best to destroy it. If he was fast he could neutralize the torpedoes heading for the abandoned battle ship, then fly back into it, find the bridge and fly it out of the battle area. Instead of a tiny Vanguard, he'd have a whole battle ship all to himself!

He shifted course and flew straight for where the torpedoes would be, noting that the pirate's mother ship was firing some powerful lasers at the torpedoes in a vain attempt to destroy them. The torpedoes' armor was somehow reflecting the light based attack. He wasn't certain how he would stop the torpedoes without detonating them in his face, but he was confident he could figure it out on the way.

He reached the path of the torpedoes with time to spare, and charged towards the nearest one. He had a plan, a crazy plan and he hoped it worked. He flew the Vanguard in a spiral to avoid the laser blasts from the pirates as he closed with his target. The tiny spec on his view screen became a near black dot, then grew as he closed with it, the occasional laser lighting up the torpedo when it was struck. Alarms started blaring in the cockpit, warning of a collision with an object and proximity to an extremely volatile material.

The laser fire stopped as he neared with the torpedo, and in that moment, the sheer size of the torpedoes became apparent. They where elongated egg shape rockets with out stretched prongs designed to puncture the hull of a vessel to avoid being deflected before unleashing the payload of irrational and unstable particles. Hibiki knew there was no way he could destroy the torpedoes without being destroyed himself, but he did have a solution. At the last second, he had the Vanguard's sword re-sheathed while he spun the Vanguard around and aimed its feet so the he would crash the Vanguard between the prongs.

He grit his teeth as the collision occurred, the impact driving the breath from his body and likely bruising several places all over. He grinned when he realized he didn't detonate the torpedo, but quickly set about the next phase of his insane plan as he fire the Vanguard's thrusters. He was worried for a second, until he felt the G-forces of the spin he was inducing in the torpedo. He looked at his radar screen to watch for the right moment, swallowing back the motion sickness that was setting in. He was glad he skipped launch. When he brought the torpedo's spin to barely bearable level, he shifted his Vanguard's position and which thrusters where firing, throwing the torpedo off it's course.

He could feel the unmanned weapon fighting back, attempting to correct its course, but his Vanguard's maneuvering thrusters where superior. From the way everything else was moving on his radar screen, he could tell he was creating the conditions he wanted, and at the right moment, he drew the Vanguard's sword back out from his back, slicing off a couple of the torpedo's prongs and setting himself free. He then flew the Vanguard in a straight line away from the path of the two torpedoes.

Hibiki congratulated himself for pulling off the stunt. He knew he wouldn't be able to stop the torpedoes. But he did manage to have one diverted. He sent it into a spin to throw off its navigation computer, then threw it off course. It tried to revert, however the spin was creating a gyroscopic effect, as well as messing with its calculations. It over compensated and was flying in an expanding spiral. And just as Hibiki intended, it collided with the other torpedo, their prongs tangling and locking them together, the momentum of the first transferring to the other and trapping them both in a an expanding spiral as they sped off course from their target.

Hibiki howled as his genius plan went off without an hitch. He was sore, and was certain his Vanguard was damaged, but nothing that couldn't be fixed. He sped off towards the discarded section of the Ikazuchi, cackling like an evil clown as his Vanguard carried him there.

A moment later, he was speeding down the wrecked Vanguard runway of the Ikazuchi, with his elated smile plastered to his face. He had never done something so exciting in his entire life!

However his good mood died when he reached the cargo bay next to the Vanguard hanger. Three of the pirates' fighter crafts where sitting in it, and he recognized the white and black one he damaged earlier. He also could see a huge section of the wall and ceiling missing, exposing what he suspected was the power plant section of the ship, and another of the fighter crafts embedded in one of those walls next to a huge ribbed sphere that was faintly glowing.

Meia was frustrated inside. Dita had lost control when breached the Ikazuchi, and blasted her way into a different section of the ship. While the troops they were carrying had succeeded in capturing all the men on board and ditched them into the escape pods, Dita had run off chasing some sort of tiny robot. She and Jura had to find her in the evacuated ship when the Captain had ordered them to evacuated. While they were beginning to fly out, they had discovered that Dita's Dread fighter craft was trapped.

She had just heard that not only had they failed to escape the Tarak ship before it was destroyed, but that a Vanguard had somehow stopped the missiles. The second Dread squadron had reported that they either destroyed or driven off the Vanguards. She, Barnette and Jura had re-landed and gotten out of their space crafts to talk to Dita and decide which of them would give her a ride back to their mother ship when they got the order to be ready for the lone Vanguard's return. And before they could get back into their Dread, it did show up.

Suddenly, the soft blue glow from the power generator became blinding, engulfing the four women and their fighter craft, the lone man in his mech, the ship they were on, and the nearby pirate ship. In a flash they were gone.

Back on the bridge of the Ikazuchi, the whole bridge was stunned when the stolen Vanguard reappeared in the battle and took out the two torpedoes launched to destroy the old section of the Ikazuchi. The General didn't want the women to get a hold of it. After a long awkward pause, he shouted for another pair of torpedoes to be launched, then changed his mind and ordered a dozen to be launched. He was impatiently growling as he received sit reps from the bridge crew telling him the status of his attack order, trying his best not to get angry at the complements some of the officers were giving to the insane thief. Then, through the large windows of the bridge, he could see a blue flash of pale light in the distance as he received a report that the old section and the pirate ship disappeared from there scanners without a trace.

**~- End Chapter 1 -~**


End file.
